A New Avenger
by NormalaW
Summary: Not writing anymore. Genevieve Winter is from another planet. But when her ship crashes in Ohio, she goes to New York to find Spider-Man so he can help her. When she gets there, she learns that Spider-Man is dead, so she offers to help reverse the curse. Will Genevieve be a new member of the Avengers? Can she bring the dead back from dust? Rated K for minor language and violence.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This story takes place about ten months after the ending of Infinity War. I do not on any of the characters in this story except for Genevieve Winter! I do not own any part of Marvel whatsoever.

Chapter One

"Hello, my name is Genevieve Winter, and I am a passenger on this train," I said in a monotone. There was a tiny man in a blue suit walking around and collecting tickets. I was not familiar with this sort of situation so I was just assuring that I was in the right place.

"Yes, I can see that, Miss Winter," he said, chuckling a bit. "Ticket?"

I thrust my ticket at him. "Here."

"Okie…" he punched the ticket and handed it back to me. What use did I have for this once-ticket, now-perforated piece of paper? I stuck it in my pocket, just for safekeeping. Earth was a strange place.

I watched the buildings, cars, landscapes all go by quickly from my window. The train was high off the ground, so everything was farther away and appeared to be moving more slowly. I watched a small car a few hundred feet below travel on a road slow, slower, stopped. But we kept moving.

I missed my home planet. I knew everything there was to know there, and here I knew practically nothing except a language. I was going to New York City because I'd heard that that was where a superhero by the name of Spider-Man lived. I found that an odd name- who would want to be a spider? They are small and stupid and have too many eyes. Plus all beings share a hatred of them.

I'd heard that Spider-Man was about my earth age, which was sixteen. He lived with his Aunt and worked for an organization called the Avengers, made up of all superheroes. Most of the superheroes on the team were from Earth, but there was one named Thor who was from Asgard, a kingdom near mine. My kingdom does not have a name in any human language.

The train stopped a few hours later in New York City. I was here to find Spider-Man, so I went up to someone on the street and asked, "do you know Spider-Man?" She looked at me like I was crazy and wandered off. "Rude," I muttered. I asked many others this same question but got the same reaction from all of them.

One man pointed to a large tower with an A on it. Because it was so big, it looked to be close, but I knew it was more than a 30 minute walk. I was supposed to blend in with the humans, but I wanted to get there quickly, so I snapped my fingers.

All time stopped. Every single person on the street froze in place, feet in the air, mouths open to take a sip of coffee. I flew up, up high above the clouds so I was practically invisible to the people down below on this foggy day.

I snapped and time started again. The clouds started to move again. I could hear horns honking below and people chattering. I flew to the tower and sat on a balcony so I could see the whole city.

I couldn't- there was too much fog. But it was still extremely beautiful to see above the clouds. This tower was very tall.

I have many powers. I can stop time by snapping my fingers, I can fly, I can lift as much as 500,000 tons (which I'm told is the weight of a building called the One World Trade Center here in New York), and I can read minds. Only if they're weak, however. If they have built up a mental shield, there is no way I can break past that barrier.

"Okay. Now to find Spider-Man," I muttered to myself. I flew down below the clouds to the bottom of the tower. All the lights were off and there was nobody inside. No noise, no nothing. I stopped a woman passing by on the street. "Excuse me, why is there nobody in here?" I asked her.

"They deserted it last year. The Avengers are upstate now. There's a sign on the front door that says where to find them." She pointed around the corner to the other side of the building. "I like your accent," she said. "Where are you from?" I thought of the place that I landed on Earth.

"Columbus, Ohio!" I said confidently. She gave me a weird look but I just walked away, around the corner to the front of the building. She was right, there was a sign on the front door that read "Gone Upstate. Find Us Here:" And then an address.

I found one of the large electronic maps meant to direct tourists a few blocks away and zoomed out to find the town that was on the sign. An hour away by Terran "cars" so probably twenty minutes by flight.

I arrived at the Avengers building about twenty-five minutes later to see sun, people, and general business. There were large cars and trucks beeping and driving around- from my high vantage point they looked like little ants. And the people, who looked even smaller, were there too. I bet Spider-Man was one of them.

I flew down to the small building on the front of the property. Inside, a short, stout man sat behind a desk with a frown on his face. A nameplate in front of him read "Happy Hogan". "Why so unhappy, Mr. Happy?" I asked.

He scowled at the pun but then realized I was not someone he knew and the frown quickly disappeared. "What can I do for you? Sadly, we do not do tours or "meet-ups" with members of the Avengers."

"My name is Genevieve Winter and I am here to see Spider-Man." Happy Hogan's frown instantly reappeared.

"Girl, what did I just-" His expression changed and he said more calmly, "I'm sorry, the Avengers are not available at the moment. Or ever."

"But Mr. Hogan! I have powers! I'm not a human," I said a bit more quietly, my voice dropping with every word until I was whispering.

"Do you?" He said, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed. "Prove it."

I snapped my fingers. Time stopped except for Mr. Hogan and I, who were still moving. The clocks were frozen, the sun stopped moving across the sky. "I can stop time, all over the world, and I can choose who is a part of it and not." I snapped my fingers once more and everything started moving again. Mr. Hogan blinked in astonishment.

"Follow me outside," I said, beckoning with my finger. He obeyed, and I shot myself into the air. "I CAN FLY, TOO!" I yelled down at him. He didn't seem to hear me, so I flew back down and said at a normal volume, "I can fly, too."

"I got that!" He said. "What else can you do?"

"I can lift up to 500,000 tons. And I can read minds if they don't have a mental barrier. I can see you have a very strong mental barrier- but that man over there, Iron Man? Surprisingly he doesn't have a shield. He's thinking 'who the hell is that girl who just flew up 300 feet?'" Iron Man was walking over as I said it. He came to stand next to Mr. Happy Hogan.

"Happy, who the hell is this girl who just flew 300 feet into the air?" He looked me up and down, scrutinizing me. "Why are you here, woman?"

"My name is Genevieve Winter, pleased to meet you! I am from a planet merely twenty ticks away from the kingdom of Asgard and I am here to see Mister Spider-Man." I held out my hand to shake. I'd read that that's what they did on earth.

"Hello. I'm Tony Stark. Have you not heard… Spider-Man is dead. Gone." Mr. Stark's mouth went flatline and I could see tears brimming in his eyes. "I was like a father to the kid. But Thanos disintegrated half the world's population, most of the galaxy's superheroes along with it. We, the Avengers, are working on reversing the curse."

"Could I be of any help? I am not from this world but I do know very much about Thanos and his daughters, Gamora and Nebula. Gamora used to 'babysit' for me. We were friends when she was a teenager and I was a small child. I also know very much about the Guardians of the Galaxy."

Mr. Stark considered this, I could tell. I could read his mind and I knew he was thinking it. "You know what?"

"Who is what?" I said.

"Wait- what? No. That's not- I meant, you know what we are going to do right now? We're going to have a meeting of the Avengers. See if they think you should join the team."

I pumped my fist. " _Kaschia_!" I exclaimed. "Oh, that means 'yes!' in my native language."

I walked with Mr. Stark over to the largest building, into a room with a podium and a lot of seats. The Avengers were all here- Black Widow, Bruce Banner, Captain America, Thor, all the main ones. Iron Man and I stood at the front of the room and the rest of them sat down.

Black Widow, whose name I knew was Natasha Romanoff, had an impeccable mental shield. Nobody, not even the strongest readers, could ever break her shield. Captain America's wasn't too strong, but I didn't feel like trying, and Bruce Banner was the same.

Now Thor- he had no shield whatsoever. He was thinking at this moment, "she's kinda hot, eh? But no. Shh. I have no idea who she is. She could be a bad girl. Ha. Bad girl."

"Thanks, Thor," I said cockily. "I do consider myself attractive. But I'm not a bad guy. My name is Genevieve Winter and I am from a planet quite close to your kingdom."

"Wait- what? I didn't say anything!"

"She's a mind-reader, Thor. Notice she didn't respond to what I was thinking? I'm a woman, so naturally she would be inclined to read my mind first. However, I have incredibly strong mental shields, and I could tell that there was a mind reader in this room because I felt something like…" she shuddered. "Like claws against my mind. Steve and Bruce have minimal shields, but you have none. You're an open book, man."

"That would be correct," I responded. "I can also stop time, fly, and lift anything at or under 500,000 tons. Unfortunately, I can't lift your hammer, Thor. I've tried, and Mjölnir is too heavy even for me."

"You've tried?" Thor said in disbelief.

"Yes, I went to Asgard on a field trip when I was young and I tried to pick it up. You kind of leave it laying around your kingdom, it's very weird."

"Well! Nobody else can pick it up, so…!"

I chuckled.

"Avengers! We are here to discuss this young woman named Genevieve Winter. She is from the planet of- hang on." He turned to me- "where are you from?" he said a bit quieter.

"Well, there's no word for it in the English language, but you can try to pronounce it if you'd like. I'm from a planet called Wiechstüch. The closest language on Earth to the language that we speak is German, if that helps with the accent."

Thor spoke up, "Wiechstüch! I went there once. Quite a beautiful planet. Why did you decide to leave it?"

Iron Man glared at him. "Not important right now. This is Miss Genevieve Winter from Wiechstüch." He butchered it and Thor and I winced but just let him keep going. "She can- I guess she already said, but, Miss Winter, would you like to show them?"

I nodded. "I can stop time by-" I snapped, leaving Thor, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Banner, and Ms. Romanoff still moving, but Mr. Stark was frozen. I snapped again- "snapping. I can read minds, as I demonstrated earlier. I can fly, as well." I lifted myself off the ground a few inches and flew around the room. "And I can lift very heavy things. But not Mjölnir, apparently."

"I have only recently been learning how to use these powers. All Wiechstüchians' powers are rendered useless on their planet and on the three sister planets, but everywhere else they can be used. And I've only been away from Wiechstüch twice, when I went to Asgard with my school and now."

Mr. Stark nodded. "Thank you, Miss Winter. You can wait outside while we discuss."

I stepped outside the room into a spacious sitting area with a large sofa and a fireplace. I sat down on it. It was very springy, not unlike the sofas back home. Everything on Wiechstüch was very fancy because everyone there had a lot of money. It was the richest of the sister planets.

The sister planets were a group of four planets that were situated in a sort of square formation. There was my planet, Wiechstüch, the smallest and richest. We were known for being snobby and unnecessarily know-it-alls.

Then there was Bouleterrie, the second smallest. Their main export was a substance similar to cotton on Earth. They spoke two languages: Wiechstüch from my planet and Boulese from theirs. Where we lived, Boulese was merely an elective in our schools but there, everyone spoke both languages fluently.

The second biggest was called Espayuta. They spoke Boulese exclusively. They had a horrible school system and most of the Espaya people were extremely uneducated and illiterate, but they were fantastic laborers and produced a lot of food for the sister planets.

The biggest planet, and the second richest, was Zelepodâ. That was known for being the greenest and prettiest of the planets. Everybody from the other three sister planets went there on summer vacation to swim in all the big lakes and oceans they had, and to hike on some of the most beautiful mountains in the galaxy. They had almost as good of an education system as us, and for languages they taught Wiechstüch, Boulese, English, Asgardian, and Groot, a language only spoken by a rare species called Flora Colossus. My old 'babysitter', Gamora, was friends with one.

On Wiechstüch we had normal human names. It used to be common for people from my planet to make a pilgrimage to Earth when they were sixteen Earth years, which was my age. But about twenty years ago they stopped doing that because too many Wiechstüchians died going through all the asteroid belts to get to the milky way galaxy. Nowadays, most Wiechstüchians only traveled within fifty clicks of their home planet.

Anyways, they wanted the people on Wiechstüch to have regular names so that when they went to Earth they wouldn't be "weird" or "out of place". Even though they stopped doing the pilgrimage, they still use traditional Terran names. So my name is Genevieve Winter.

Mr. Stark popped his head out maybe thirty minutes after they sent me out to the sitting area. "Miss Winter?" He said.

"Yes?" I sat up quickly.

"We've made our decision."


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: I am not in any way making Natasha go shopping because she is a woman. I just felt that she would be the one who would connect the best with Genevieve.

Chapter Two

I was nervous. And I had no idea why- I didn't know much about these Avengers or any of these people. I'd just heard of them before because they were pretty famous. But for some reason, I really wanted to be on their team. I really wanted to help them reverse this dust-curse-thingy or whatever it was. It seemed important.

Mr. Stark took a deep breath. "We've decided that you're… you're on the team. Just for now! And after we reverse the curse we'll reassess. See if we have room for you and if you're even good at your job."

I didn't realize I was holding my breath, but I took a big gasping one as soon as he said it. "Thank you, thank you so much!" I said, grinning.

Ms. Romanoff, who seemed fairly closed off and the strong and silent type, gave me a small smile. "Welcome to the Avengers, kid. We're looking forward to having you."

"Now we need to come up with a cool name for you," Thor said. "Something that wakes you sound powerful, something that bad people will fear."

"What are those things that swim around in your seas called? We have them on Wiechstüch but they do not have the same name," I asked.

"Fish," said Thor. "I had to learn that too. Did you know I speak Wiechstüch? They had it as a language in school on Asgard."

"Yes, isn't there a… a _fish_ that snaps a lot? Because, as you know, I can stop time by snapping?" I wracked my brain for the fish. "Thor. On Wiechstüch it's called _kuda_."

"Barracuda? That's pretty smart. Sounds badass, and you're right, they do snap. Tony, can we call her the Barracuda?"

Mr. Stark nodded. "Sure. Oh, and on the Avengers, we call each other by our first names. Our superhero names are for the general public, not members of the family. So I'm Tony Stark, that's Natasha Romanoff- just call her Nat- that there is Thor, still Thor, and that's Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner."

"Nice to officially meet you all," I said. "And you can call me Gen if you'd like."

"So today you can just move yourself in. I assume you need no help if you can carry 500,000 tons, but just let Happy know if you need anything. Tomorrow we'll start with the real work," Mr. Stark (it still seemed too weird to call him Tony) said to me.

I didn't have much stuff because when my ship crashed in Ohio, the fire destroyed almost all of my packages. The only thing I still had was my handbag that's always slung over my shoulder, that contained some Wiechstüchian money which was useless here, my travel journal, and a picture of Spider-Man. I wasn't creepy, I just needed to remember what he looked like. You know, for finding purposes.

I sat on my bed and turned on the television that was across the room. Wiechstüch was a very advanced planet and we didn't have any technology like this, so all I knew about it was the proper syntax. I had no idea how to work it.

I didn't want to watch what was on- some American movie on a channel that I didn't know the name of. But I didn't know how to change what I was watching so I just laid there, watching it but not really. I was, as Terrans say, spacing out.

There was a knock at my door and I jumped. "Come in," I said. "You don't have to knock. What did you think I'd be doing in here?" I asked as Natasha Romanoff, _the Black Widow_ , came into my room.

"Oh I don't know. But we have pretty strict rules about walls and boundaries here because Vis is always-" she paused and swallowed. "Was always materializing through walls and walking in on everything."

"To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I wanted to check on you, see what you were doing. How you were dong. It's a pretty big step, going from teenager to Avenger in a day. How old did you say you were, anyways?" She asked.

"I didn't. But I'm sixteen Earth years." I smiled. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ms. Romanoff- Natasha. I meant."

"You don't have much, do you? It's quite empty in here."

"No. Everything was destroyed when I crashed in Ohio. I only have a small bag of things. Can I ask you something?" I said.

"Shoot."

"What? What… do you mean, what should I… shoot?"

"No, I meant go ahead."

"Oh. Well, how did you build up such a strong mental shield? Why are you, like, the most feared Avenger? Most of them seem more personable, more into the whole public relations thing, but you don't seem like that, I guess. You are very closed off."

I wasn't sure if that was a good question to ask based on Ms. Romanoff's face. I couldn't tell if she was angry or not. "I… let's put it this way, I had a hard childhood. Nothing came easy to me, so I had to do everything myself and therefore I am very independent. I don't depend on anybody for anything, and I can be very distrustful of people, so I don't let anybody in. I close off my mind. I had to learn to do that from a young age."

"Oh." I was surprised, I thought it was going to be like "I'd encountered an evil Wiechstüchian once" or something like that. "I am very sorry. My condolences."

We sat there for a while, watching the movie on the television She seemed to enjoy it, and seemed to know it or have seen it before but I really wasn't paying attention still. This was all happening so soon, so fast and I wasn't familiar with any of it.

I guess it was just an instinct to mind read, because Natasha let her shields down for a second to show me a memory of the Avengers. I was surprised, but I went with it. "We were so young back then. So carefree- well, as carefree as an adult superhero can be. We were all so friendly, too, but then we grew older and… it all kind of went to shit. But now we have a new member on our team! You! So we'll truly have a carefree, young person on our team."

"Well, as carefree as a girl from another planet who's a superhero can be," I said, giving her a big grin.

Natasha patted my knee. "Tell you what, let's go out somewhere to get you some clothes. I'm not a big clothes shopper, I'm really not into any of that girl stuff, and I'm atrocious at girl talk, but I'll take you shopping. All I'll be doing is paying, not participating. I don't subscribe to that whole culture."

Captain Steve Rogers was in the sitting area as we walked out. He watched us go, until we were almost at the door, and said, "hey Nat… where are you going?"

She walked towards him and he stood up. She said quietly, "taking Genevieve shopping." They kissed, and the Captain pulled away to say,

"I thought you didn't 'subscribe to that whole culture'."

"Ah, and I don't, but the kid needs clothes and she doesn't have any American money. Bye." Natasha sauntered back towards me and we walked out together, to their jet. "Okay, I'm not one for silly games, but you can fly, correct?" I nodded. "And lift a lot of pounds?"

"500,000 tons or less, yes," I responded.

"Any chance you'd be willing to fly me into the city? If it's not too much trouble? I've just never flown in the open air before and it looks so nice." She had a pleading look on her face, so I said yes.

"Only if you sit in a chair."

So here I was, flying through the warm afternoon breeze, holding up Natasha Romanoff, also known as Black Widow, in a lawn chair. And she was giggling! She, the most closed-off and unemotional person I'd ever met, was actually giggling! She was giddy with excitement.

We landed in New York and she got off, still squealing from the ride.

She gave one last giggle and then sobered up her face a bit. "Okay, that was awesome. But we need to get down to business. First, you can shop for your regular, everyday clothes. They don't have to necessarily be drab and tan, but not like super flashy and colorful, either. And if anyone asks you where you're from, say Hannover, Germany. It's a well known place, so people will know that it's real, but not too famous so people won't be asking you questions about it."

"And is there a second point?" I asked. I didn't mean to sound rude but I think it came out that way.

Natasha lowered her voice and stepped in a bit closer to me. "Yes, after that we'll be going to a secret location where we can get you proper gear for your new duties as an Avenger. A super-suit, as it were. But don't call it that. The general public does and it's so annoying."

"Okay, well we best be on our way. I can just pop by a random store and get some clothes. I've ever been shopping on Earth before, I probably know less than you do." We walked over to a store called Urban Outfitters and I bought a few shirts and two pairs of jeans. "This shit is expensive," I said as we walked out.

"That's alright. You need clothes. Now let's go get you suited up!"

Natasha and I walked the few blocks to this "secret location" in silence. I didn't know her that well, and she was about twenty years older than me, so I was feeling a bit awkward. We got to the location about ten minutes later. Natasha had to go through a whole recognition system, complete with retina scans and a fingerprint test. She then put in a code and we were granted access to the building.

I'd heard of New York apartments before. We didn't often get American movies or television shows broadcast to Wiechstüch, but the few that we did were set in the city. The buildings here were all so tall and looming. They were almost like tall people, watching you from far above.

"Hey. Kid. Stop spacing out!" Natasha said, snapping in front of my face on the elevator ride up to the top of the massive building.

I wasn't used to things being so close to my face, so I grabbed her wrist and twisted it. I then realized what I was doing and let go quickly. "Sorry," I muttered as we stepped off the elevator.

"It's alright-"

Suddenly the sounds of screams pierced the air. I ran to the nearest window and looked out. For a second, I couldn't tell what was wrong, but then I realized- a ship, a giant freight ship, was heading straight for the city. And it didn't look like it was gonna stop.

"Shit. Shit, this is when we need Peter, with all his special webs and crap," Natasha said. She pressed a few buttons on the expensive-looking watch she was wearing and said, "call Tony Stark."

"Yeah?" Mr. Stark's voice came out of a tiny speaker on her wrist.

"There's a cargo ship heading for the harbor. It's not stopping. Genevieve and I can't get in there quickly enough, we need back up. We need someone to come help," she said quickly. I was impressed at how calm she was staying under all this pressure.

"You're the only one on duty that's close to the site right now, Nat. You'll have to figure out a way-" as soon as I heard that, I punched through the window and flew out into the air. It was a lot colder up here, especially because it was November and I'd heard it got pretty cold on Earth around this time.

I heard Natasha's voice say, "shit. I have to go, Tony. Fuck. Genevieve! What are you doing?"

I didn't respond. I flew down to the harbor and ushered all the people there out of the way. The ship seemed to be going too quickly for me to reach it before it hit, but at least I could minimize casualties.

All of the people on the harbor were safe, out of the way, far from where even spray from the water could touch them. But then I realized there was a crew on the boat. A crew of people who were hanging over the sides, people who were crying for help, people… who would die if I didn't stop this boat.

I had to stop this boat.

I flew towards it and put all my might into it. It was hard to hold, and my hands were crushing the metal. I estimated it was about 450 thousand tons, because while I could hold that much, it was extremely difficult. I pushed as hard as I could. My breathing was labored. I was barely able to stop it from moving because while all of my energy was going into stopping it, I was having a harder time staying in the air.

I pushed and pushed, and I got so close to the harbor that I was almost flattened between the stern of the boat and the harbor walls and I wasn't sure I as going to be able to stop it, it just kept going, but-

It stopped. A mere twelve inches from the harbor.

The crew of the ship cheered. "Thank you so much!" A man at the head of the boat said. "Who are you?"

"Um, I'm…"

"She's the Barracuda," Natasha said, running up to the harbor to stand beside me. "Good job, Genevieve," she said quietly to me. "You did good, kid." We helped all of the people off the boat and brought them up to the deck. We then went to the engine room to see what had gone wrong- it really wasn't anything big, no alien threats, no big terror regimes trying to eliminate the civilians of New York or trying to destroy something on the ship.

It was simply that the captain had fallen asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

So far, Natasha was the only one who had taken to calling me "kid". For a lot of them, they'd just never really talked to me. But for Mr. Stark it was too close to home. As soon as Natasha and I got back, her once again riding in the lawn chair that I held up in the air, Mr. Stark ran out and gave me a high-five.

"Hey! You did good, Genevieve. Stopping a 470 _thousand_ ton ship with no casualties, barely any damage to the harbor, and absolutely no injuries? That is not something any of us did our first day on the job, I can tell you that much." Mr. Stark grinned, and I smiled right back at him. I caught flashes of memories from his mind of his first day on the Avengers, of Natasha's, of all of them, but I couldn't entirely make them out. I guess he was trying to learn how to build a mental shield.

We walked over to the main building and into the big sitting room. Thor, Captain Rogers, and Mr. Banner were all sitting on the largest sofa, watching the news on television. Thor noticed we walked in, gave a small wave, and turned the volume up so we could hear it as well.

A news reporter was down at the harbor by the boat with a microphone. "An unnamed woman who looked to be about twenty" Iron Man scoffed "stopped this cargo ship from hitting and destroying a large part of the New York harbor today. Witnesses say she flew from a high building down to the harbor, got in front of the ship, and pushed it until it stopped, just inches away from the harbor. This woman pulled it off with no casualties and no injuries whatsoever."

"Citizens are speculating about who this new superhero is. Is she an alien? What's her name and what are her powers? And is she an Avenger? I'm Barbara Cook with Channel Four News. Back to you, Molly." Thor turned the sound to mute and they all turned around to look at me.

"Nice job, Miss Winter! That was quite a feat. We are very impressed," Mr. Bruce Banner said, giving me a small smile.

Thor giggled and said: " _Wartein chaf, un neir kunde wider a Captain irik ahlrer üba_.", which translates roughly to _just you wait, in one second the Captain is going to make some random criticism about your work_. I nodded and turned to Captain Rogers.

"What the hell was that?" He said, baffled. "Never mind, don't answer. I'm assuming one of your languages. Anyways, yes, that was a very good job. Although there was a bit of damage to the dock which could have been avoided if you'd-"

I looked at Thor again and we both burst out laughing. "I said you were gonna do that!" Thor giggled. "I told her you'd make a random tiny criticism and you did! Haha I know you so well."

Captain America cracked a small smile. He held out his hand for me to shake. "Job well done, _kid_. And I think the rest of us should probably learn Asgardian and… your language so these two can't have secret conversations anymore, don't you think," he said to the rest of the Avengers.

Thor and I did a little fist bump. " _Wesie eh nack tün_ ," I whispered and we shared a little look. _They never will_.

The Avengers were going to make a statement. They'd gathered reporters- real ones, not bloggers- in their conference room and were going to officially announce me as the newest Avenger. For the time being.

I had my Barracuda suit on. It was made of a durable fabric, similar to that of Natasha's. It was blue and black, and had an insignia on the chest. I found it quite comfortable, considering it was fitted and hugged my body just right because it was made for me, and only me. I didn't have a helmet or hat or anything like that, but I did have goggles and there was a little instruction system attached to them that analyzed everything and told me the best ways to do things.

All the rest of the Avengers put on fancy clothes and got ready to go in to the conference room. I was nervous. I had been in front of many big crowds back on Wiechstüch, but the focus had never been on me. And now it was, here _I_ was, and there was a room full of fifty something reporters waiting for me and me alone.

We walked into the room in a line. I was in the back, behind Thor. He whispered to me, " _Bir ielg_." _Good luck_. I smiled at him and we all stood behind the podium that Captain Rogers was standing at.

"Welcome all. Thank you for coming. As you know, we are the Avengers-" he turned to us and waved his hand in a circle to indicate the people behind him- "And recently, our forces were greatly depleted by a villain by the name of Thanos. Plans are in the works for reversing the curse Thanos cast over the world, turning half of the population into dust. But there are still good things happening in the world! We are proud to announce the newest member of the Avengers, for the time being, Ms. Genevieve Winter, also known as the Barracuda!"

Captain Rogers motioned to me to step forwards to the podium, so I did, amid uproarious applause.

Many reporters wanted to ask me questions, and Thor whispered that I should just say the names of the networks. "Okay, um…" I couldn't think of many news channels or networks, so I just said the name of my favorite from back home. " _Proginne Ans_? Any questions?"

"That's not a news channel outside the sister planets," Thor said quietly. I nodded.

I thought of the very first one I'd seen on a TV in Ohio. They had a huge television display in the store and there was a channel name… what was it… "CNN?"

A man raised his mic towards me and said, "how did you obtain your powers?"

"I am from a planet very far away from here called Wiechstüch. It is quite near Thor's home of Asgard, in fact. My powers are gone on my planet but on any planet not within roughly 45 clicks of my planet, they are activated. Next question? Channel… four?"

A mic that read Channel Four in big letters was shoved in my face by a stout blonde woman. "What exactly are your powers?"

I took a deep breath. "I can lift up to and nothing more than 500,000 tons, I can fly, I can read most people's minds, and I can stop time with a snap of my fingers. That's why they call me the Barracuda- a sort of snapping fish, they told me. Because my most unique power is stopping time by snapping, they chose that to be my name."

The press conference went on for about another hour, by which time I was tired and I just wanted to relax, so the Avengers brought me down to their pool beneath the surface. It was in a room with no windows, so the whole room was aquamarine and had light from the pool bouncing off the walls, creating an eerie but friendly and welcoming feel all at the same time.

We all played in the water together, and I impressed them with my swimming skills. "School ends at eleven EY, or earth years, on Wiechstüch, so there's a lot of time to do other stuff- like swim, or travel!"


End file.
